The Standard of Living

by Dorothy Parker

Tells about Anabel and Midge, two little 18-dollars-a-week stenographers who played the game of what-would-you-do-if-you-had-a-million-dollars. Would they buy a silver fox coat, or mink?

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Female Authors, Classics

15 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 20, 1941

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Dorothy Parker was an American writer, poet and critic best known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the Hollywood blacklist.
Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker." Nevertheless, her literary output and reputation for her sharp wit have endured.

Reviews

[Em Memória de Fátima Linhares]

O nível de vida - Dorothy Parker

Como era seu costume, o almoço havia sido à base de açúcar, amido, óleo e manteiga. Geralmente, as duas comiam sandes feitas de um pão esponjoso, fresco e branco, barrado com manteiga e maionese; comiam grandes pedaços de bolo, que jaziam ensopados debaixo de gelado e de chantili e de chocolate derretido com granulado de frutos secos. (...) Elas não optavam por nenhum outro tipo de comida, nem tampouco pensavam em tal coisa. E a sua pele parecia pétalas de anémonas dos bosques, e as suas barrigas eram tão lisas e os seus flancos tão magros como se pertencentes a um jovem índio.

Mal comecei a leitura e já fiquei com inveja destas duas jovens! Annabel e Midge, além de comerem porcarias que só entopem as veias e continuarem magras, também têm um jogo interessante. O que fariam se um estranho lhes deixasse um milhão de dólares? O jogo tinha uma condição que o tornava mais interessante e desafiante, teriam de gastar cada cêntimo nelas. Nada cá de altruísmos ou de ajudar os outros.

O interessante neste pequeno conto é a alteração no comportamento das duas pobretanas assim que entram numa loja onde não poderiam comprar sequer um alfinete.

[Paula Mota]

# short stories in the shortest month #15

The Standard of Living, de Dorothy Parker

4,5*

Once Annabel had introduced the game to Sylvia, another girl who worked in the office. She explained the rules to Sylvia and then offered her the gambit “What would be the first thing you’d do?” Sylvia had not shown the decency of even a second of hesitation. “Well,” she said, “the first thing I’d do, I’d go out and hire somebody to shoot Mrs Gary Cooper, and then…” So it is to be seen that she was no fun.

Dorothy Parker põe-me invariavelmente bem-disposta com as suas personagens animadas e peculiares. Desta feita, duas inseparáveis amigas dactilógrafas têm como passatempo percorrer a Quinta Avenida a esbanjar charme e a fazer um jogo: o que comprariam só para si mesmas se um velhinho rico que as conhecesse de vista e tivesse uma morte santa lhes deixasse um milhão de dólares?

The single strain on the girls’ friendship had followed an announcement once made by Annabel that the first thing she would buy with her million dollars would be a silver-fox coat. It was as if she had struck Midge across the mouth. When Midge recovered her breath, she cried that she couldn’t imagine how Annabel could so such a thing – silver-fox coats were common!

[Flo]

The second short story by Parker that I read. It was published in The New Yorker on September 20, 1941.

Tells about Anabel and Midge, two little 18-dollars-a-week stenographers who played the game of what-would-you-do-if-you-had-a-million-dollars. [...] Now, suppose somebody left them ten million dollars what-would be-the-first-thing-you'd-do?

from The New Yorker's article

May 21, 19
* Maybe on my blog.

[Sara]

Perspective is everything...or, if you are going to dream you might as well dream big.

[George Ilsley]

Two young stenographers, Annabel and Midge, speculate how they would spend a million dollars if it fell in their laps. One important rule of the game — it must be spent on themselves.

"Midge played with a seriousness that was not only proper but extreme."

Parker's descriptions are thrilling here: the story opens with a description of food that is wonderfully unappetizing and thoroughly familiar.

"Annabel and Midge did all, and did completely, all that young office workers are besought not to do. They painted their lips and their nails, they darkened their lashes and lightened their hair, and scent seemed to shimmer from them. They wore thin, bright dresses, tight over their breasts and and high on their legs, and tilted slippers, fancifully strapped. They looked conspicuous and cheap and charming."

I would have read this before in Dorothy Parker's Complete Stories, but I did enjoy once again this droll stroll down Fifth Avenue on a Saturday afternoon with Midge and Annabel.

[Дмитрий]

Две мечтательные девушки узнают, что на миллион долларов много не купишь и начинают мечтать о десяти миллионах.

[Federico DN]

How much is enough?

Midge and Annabel are two beautiful middle class workers, and extremely conceited. Their favorite routine is frequently playing a game in which they receive a generous anonymous inheritance and have to decide: What would you buy with one million dollars?

I guess this shortie was more or less ok. I sort of enjoyed the duo dynamics and that tiny twist at the end. It was highly superficial and superbly spot on for the characters. All in all I don't regret reading this, but it's not like can recommend it either.

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1941] [6p] [Fiction] [2.5] [Not Recommendable]
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???????? 75 Short Masterpieces <--

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¿Cuánto es suficiente?

Midge y Annabel son dos hermosas trabajadoras de clase media y extremadamente engreídas. Su rutina favorita suele ser jugar a un juego en el que reciben una generosa herencia anónima y tienen que decidir: ¿Qué comprarías con un millón de dólares?

Supongo que este corto estuvo más o menos bien. En cierto modo disfruté la dinámica del dúo y ese pequeño giro al final. Fue muy superficial y excelentemente acertado para los personajes. Dentro de todo no me arrepiento de haber leído esto, aunque tampoco puedo recomendarlo.

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1941] [6p] [Ficción] [2.5] [No Recomendable]
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[Marcus Vinicius]

Reality Check
One can cope with reality in various ways. Annabel and Midge deliberately choose to sweeten it (or to live it like a dream/or to falsify it). This is a light short story and the reader is invited to appreciate (and not judge) it.

[morgan]

I too like being delusional

[Caro :)]

is delulu the solulu?

[Ashly Lynne]

The Standard of Living is a short story by Dorothy Parker. It can be found in a few compilations including The Portable Dorothy Parker. I actually picked up a copy of TPDP at Half Price Books one day and am really looking forward to reading it in its entirety. I've heard references to it in a good amount of books I've read, so it's definitely, eventually, a must read. After reading this story, my need to read all her works has only increased.

This is a short read that focuses on two working women who are not poor, per say, but are also not in ownership of extra spending money. The two women are good friends and play a game every day on their lunch break. They walk around the city and answer what they would buy if a millionaire were to die and in a random act of kindness leave them his fortune. This game gets these girls by while they are working their mediocre job. Until, that is, one of them dares the other to walk into a high-end shop and price a pearl necklace. What will happen when she walks back out sobered by how little money she actually has?

As you can see, a great deal is going on in this little story. There are plenty of things to analyze while reading. There is the fact that we have two women (that may I say have passed the Bechdel test) as the main protagonists. And, on top of that, two working women. This is a huge deal, since this story was originally published in 1941, around the time all the men were at war and women were starting having to work. Then, you get to analyze each character's personality individually and how they effect how the two women interact together. Then, you can also take a look at the time period they are living in and what the implications of the time period have on their personalities and outlooks on life.

Needless to say, there is so much to look at in just a few pages of writing. The mark of a truly great short story.

I gave this short story 5/5 stars because it has so much going on and is great for the topic of feminism. (In case you haven't noticed, I'm quite into that.) I love that this is a short story about two women who are living during a man's time at war. It doesn't delve into what society was like for women who had to make their own living, but instead focusses on how these two women keep an optimistic outlook on life. It's not about the big picture of society, it's about the small one. And that small picture is two women who are friends and working together and how they cope with their situations.

I feel like I'm not writing a very structured review here, and I'm sorry. I just really enjoy talking about this short story and all it's great aspects and that causes me to get a bit flustered. I'm trying to sound as coherent as possible, I swear. I think I'm going to wrap this up now, though, since I don't really have too much else to say. (Okay, that's a lie. I could talk about this short story for probably a solid hour, so if you want to discuss it further, feel free to hit me up.)

All in all, I highly recommend this short read. It is definitely worth your time. I absolutely urge you to read it if you are into feminism, women's issues/topics/studies, and/or my review sparked some interest in you. I am looking forward to starting my copy of TPDP soon, and will then have more to say about this wonderful woman.

[Daniela Rivero Borrell]

Annabel and Midge are good friends living in NYC. They spend time together during their workdays and once they've finished their job duties. They like to play a fun game: “What would you do with a million dollars?” If I think about it, maybe I'd spend it on traveling or experiences. The catch is that you have to spend it on things that are completely for yourself, so if you travel with your family, that probably won't count.

How many things do we truly spend on ourselves? If you have a family, maybe not many at all.

[Tanesh]

Quite a funny end to it
Pretty relatable too

[Jack Rousseau]

Annabel and Midge came out of the tearoom with the arrogant slow gait of the leisured, for their Saturday afternoon stretched ahead of them. They had lunched, as was their wont, on sugar, starches, oils, and butterfats. Usually they ate sandwiches of spongy new white bread greased with butter and mayonnaise; they ate thick wedges of cake lying wet beneath ice cream and whipped cream and melted chocolate gritty with nuts. As alternates, they ate patties, sweating beads of inferior oil, containing bits of bland meat bogged in pale, stiffening sauce; they ate pastries, limber under rigid icing, filled with an indeterminate yellow sweet stuff, not still solid, not yet liquid, like salve that has been left in the sun. They chose no other sort of food, nor did they consider it. And their skin was like the petals of wood anemones, and their bellies were as flat and their flanks as lean as those of young Indian braves.
Annabel and Midge had been best friends almost from the day that Midge had found a job as stenographer with the firm that employed Annabel. By now, Annabel, two years longer in the stenographic department, had worked up to the wages of eighteen dollars and fifty cents a week; Midge was still at sixteen dollars. Each girl lived at home with her family and paid half her salary to its support.
The girls sat side by side at their desks, they lunched together every noon, together they set out for home at the end of the day's work. Many of their evenings and most of their Sundays were passed in each other's company. Often they were joined by two young men, but there was no steadiness to any such quartet; the two young men would give place, unlamented, to two other young men, and lament would have been inappropriate, really, since the newcomers were scarcely distinguishable from their predecessors. Invariably the girls spent the fine idle hours of their hot-weather Saturday afternoons together. Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.
They looked alike, though the resemblance did not lie in their features. It was in the shape of their bodies, their movements, their style, and their adornments. Annabel and Midge did, and completely, all that young office workers are besought not to do. They painted their lips and their nails, they darkened their lashes and lightened their hair, and scent seemed to shimmer from them. They wore thin, bright dresses, tight aver their breasts and high on their legs, and tilted slippers, fancifully strapped. They looked proud and cheap and charming.
Now, as they walked across to Fifth Avenue with their skirts swirled by the hot wind, they received audible admiration. Young men grouped lethargically about newsstands awarded them murmurs, exclamations, even—the ultimate tribute—whistles. Annabel and Midge passed without the condescension of hurrying their pace; they held their heads higher and set their feet with exquisite precision, as if they stepped over the necks of peasants.
Always the girls went to walk on Fifth Avenue on their free afternoons, for it was the ideal ground for their favorite game. The game could be played anywhere, and, indeed, was, but the great shop windows stimulated the two players to their best form.
Annabel had invented the game; or rather she had evolved it from an old one. Basically, it was no more than the ancient sport of what-would-you-do-if-you-had-a-million-dollars. But Annabel had drawn a new set of rules for it, had narrowed it, pointed it, made it stricter. Like all games, it was the more absorbing for being more difficult.
Annabel's version went like this: You must suppose that somebody dies and leaves you a million dollars, cool. But there is a condition to the bequest. It is stated in the will that you must spend every nickel of the money on yourself. There lay the hazard of the game. If, when playing it, you forgot, and listed among your expenditures the rental of a new apartment for your family, for example, you lost your turn to the other player. It was astonishing how many—and some of them among the experts, too— would forfeit all their innings by such slips.
It was essential, of course, that it be played in passionate seriousness. Each purchase must be carefully considered and, if necessary, supported by argument. There was no zest to playing wildly. Once Annabel had introduced the game to Sylvia, another girl who worked in the office.
She explained the rules to Sylvia and then offered her the gambit "What would be the first thing you'd do?" Sylvia had not shown the decency of even a second of hesitation. "Well," she had said, "the first thing I'd do, I'd go out and hire somebody to shoot Mrs. Gary Cooper, and then . . ." So it is to be seen that she was no fun.
But Annabel and Midge were surely born to be comrades, for Midge played the game like a master from the moment she learned it. It was she who added the touches that made the whole thing cozier. According to Midge's innovations, the eccentric who died and left you the money was not anybody you loved, or, for the matter of that, anybody you even knew. It was somebody who had seen you somewhere and had thought, "That girl ought to have lots of nice things. I'm going to leave her a million dollars when I die." And the death was to be neither untimely nor painful. Your benefactor, full of years and comfortably ready to depart, was to slip softly away during sleep and go right to heaven. These embroideries permitted Annabel and Midge to play their game in the luxury of peaceful consciences.
Midge played with a seriousness that was not only proper but extreme. The single strain on the girls' friendship had followed an announcement once made by Annabel that the first thing she would buy with her million dollars would be a silver-fox coat. It was as if she had struck Midge across the mouth. When Midge recovered her breath, she cried that she couldn't imagine how Annabel could do such a thing—silver-fox coats were common! Annabel defended her taste with the retort that they were not common, either. Midge then said that they were so. She added that everybody had a silver-fox coat. She went on, with perhaps a slight loss of head, to declare that she herself wouldn't be caught dead in silver fox.
For the next few days, though the girls saw each other as constantly, their conversation was careful and infrequent, and they did not once play their game. Then one morning, as soon as Annabel entered the office, she came to Midge and said that she had changed her mind. She would not buy a silver-fox coat with any part of her million dollars. Immediately on receiving the legacy she would select a coat of mink.
Midge smiled and her eyes shone. "I think," she said, "you're absolutely right."
Now, as they walked along Fifth Avenue, they played the game anew. It was one of those days with which September is repeatedly cursed; hot and glaring, with slivers of dust in the wind.
People drooped and shambled, but the girls carried themselves tall and walked a straight line, as befitted young heiresses on their afternoon promenade. There was no longer need for them to start the game at its formal opening. Annabel went direct to the heart of it.
"All right," she said. "So you've got this million dollars. So what would be the first thing you'd do?"
"Well, the first thing I'd do," Midge said, "I'd get a mink coat." But she said it mechanically, as if she were giving the memorized answer, to an expected question.
"Yes," Annabel said, "I think you ought to. The terribly dark kind of mink." But she, too, spoke as if by rote. It was too hot; fur, no matter how dark and sleek and supple, was horrid to the thoughts.
They stepped along in silence for a while. Then Midge's eye was caught by a shop window. Cool, lovely gleamings were there set off by chaste and elegant darkness.
"No," Midge said, "I take it back. I wouldn't get a mink coat the first thing. Know what I'd do? I'd get a string of pearls. Real pearls."
Annabel's eyes turned to follow Midge's.
"Yes," she said, slowly. "I think that's a kind of a good idea. And it would make sense, too. Because you can wear pearls with anything."
Together they went over to the shop window and stood pressed against it. It contained but one object—a double row of great, even pearls clasped by a deep emerald around a little pink velvet throat.
"What do you suppose they cost?" Annabel said.
"Gee, I don't know," Midge said. "Plenty, I guess."
"Like a thousand dollars?" Annabel said.
"Oh, I guess like more," Midge said. "On account of the emerald."
"Well, like ten thousand dollars?" Annabel said.
"Gee, I wouldn't even know," Midge said.
The devil nudged Annabel in the ribs. "Dare you to go in and price them," she said.
"Like fun!" Midge said.
"Dare you," Annabel said.
"Why, a store like this wouldn't even be open this afternoon," Midge said.
"Yes, it is so, too," Annabel said. "People just came out. And there's a doorman on. Dare you."
"Well," Midge said. "But you've got to come too."
They tendered thanks, icily, to the doorman for ushering them into the shop. It was cool and quiet, a broad, gracious room with paneled walls and soft carpet. But the girls wore expressions of bitter disdain, as. if they stood in a sty.
A slim, immaculate clerk came to them and bowed. His neat face showed no astonishment at their appearance.
"Good afternoon," he said. He implied that he would never forget it if they would grant him the favor of accepting his soft-spoken greeting.
"Good afternoon," Annabel and Midge said together, and in like freezing accents.
"Is there something—" the clerk said.
"Oh, we're just looking," Annabel said. It was as if she flung the words down from a dais.
The clerk bowed.
"My friend and myself merely happened to be passing," Midge said, and stopped, seeming to listen to the phrase. "My friend here and myself," she went on, "merely happened to be wondering how much are those pearls you've got in your window."
"Ah, yes," the clerk said. "The double rope. That is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Madam."
"I see," Midge said.
The clerk bowed. "An exceptionally beautiful necklace," he said.
"Would you care to look at it?"
"No, thank you," Annabel said.
"My friend and myself merely happened to be passing," Midge said.
They turned to go; to go, from their manner, where the tumbrel awaited them. The clerk sprang ahead and opened the door. He bowed as they swept by him.
The girls went on along the Avenue, and disdain was still on their faces.
"Honestly!" Annabel said. "Can you imagine a thing like that?"
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!" Midge said. "Why, that's a quarter of a million dollars!"
"He's got his nerve!" Annabel said.
They walked on. Slowly the disdain went, slowly and completely as if drained from them, and with it went the regal carriage and tread. Their shoulders dropped and they dragged their feet; they bumped against each other, without notice or apology, and caromed away again.
They were silent and their eyes were cloudy.
Suddenly Midge straightened her back, flung her head high, and spoke, clear and strong.
"Listen, Annabel," she said. "Look. Suppose there was this terribly rich person, see? You don't know this person, but this person has seen you somewhere and wants to do something for you. Well, it's a terribly old person, see? And so this person dies, just like going to sleep, and leaves you ten million dollars. Now, what would be the first thing you'd do?"

[Amelia Lee]

Freaking hilarious. These girls crack me up, they are so weird.

I love the idea of the girls not even making that much money, yet still acting like they own everything and everyone and can “step over the peasants”. Just because they are young and skinny with ridiculous metabolisms and pretty gives them the privilege to act all sophisticated and snooty. It’s too good. Although I’m stuck on why Parker decided to show that the girls gave half of their salaries to their families, because that sounds like a pretty nice and decent thing to do? Maybe the way the girls act in their free time is just their way of trying to feel good about themselves and justify their pretty looks, despite not being financially flamboyant. I love how Parker characterizes the girls through their exchanges, like Midge feeling like she was slapped in the face when Annabel said she would buy a silver fox coat if she had a million dollars, when Midge thinks that mink is more suitable, yet NEITHER of them could ever freaking afford something close to that. It’s just hilarious and reminds me of fandoms or people on the internet busting eachother up over their opinions on shows or influencers, while they are bickering over things that they would never be able to experience or understand fundamentally other than aesthetically. It’s depressing, and we can see it when the girls slouch over after facing the reality that they could never afford the pearl necklace in the shop. But when Midge doubles down and increases it to ten million dollars, that just shows how people choose to live in their fantasies rather than face reality. At least when they are young and still pretty like the girls I suppose, so at least when you look in the mirror and look somewhat like a celebrity, you can feel good about yourself for something you don’t even have to work for. It’s like the metabolism thing and how they can keep indulging themself on the rich foods, and how they never even thought to eat anything else, yet they still look so skinny. It’s like how they always indulge in the fantasy of having a million dollars, but they are still skinny in their wallets!

[Annalee]

*minor spoiler*
My first foray to Dorothy Parker and I enjoyed it. With a line like ‘constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship’ is reason enough to check out her other works. It’s a story of two friends Annabel and Midge who met while working as stenographers. Parker’s description of the two women and their lifestyle is nothing short of witty. I can relate when they daydream about having a lot of money to be able to afford to buy oneself anything minus the guilt. It’s all pipe dream but ‘inheriting a lot of money’ is not too bad of a windfall. They know it’s a game they play and with today’s economy with having to work your derrière off all the time, there’s no harm in such flights of fancy.

[Barb H]

Dorothy Parker was renowned for her understanding and views on human nature. This story originally copyrighted in 1924-1929, was found in her, Dorothy Parker Complete Stories .
It tells of two young girls, Annabel and Midge, arrogant and stylish for their age and status. Considering the times, it is easier, but amazing, to view that Annabel earned eighteen dollars and fifteen cents a week as a stenographer and Midge, her junior, at sixteen dollars!. They have set out on a brilliant Saturday afternoon, with nothing but pleasure on their minds. Their favorite occupation was their game, "what if we had a million dollars". Parker has ventured into their simplicity, their naivete and immaturity as the story progressed.

It was interesting and amusing to peer into an earlier era and a time when youthful thoughts may have involved only the pursuit of pleasure.

[Christina]

What I got from this story is that no amount of money is ever enough to make a satisfied life if money is all you care about. There will always be more to buy, objects more expensive than the last. True contentedness comes from making the most of what you have and not waiting on money or objects to make you feel whole.

[Maxine]

It is the first thing that I read from Dorothy Parker and I liked it! Everyone has once thought about what they would buy if they had a lot of money, sometime it is not really what we really want but more what we could have just because we would have money. I think I will try an other writing from Dorothy Parker later (:

[Nathaniel]

Perspective is everything.
A short , sweet and simple story that offers us a shift in not only how we view these women but how they view their own circumstances.

I've read novels with less development than these 6 pages.

[Meredith]

what a lovely first paragraph (all those descriptions of food!) and same goes to the portrayal of annabel and midge. being delusional is an amazing hobby.

“Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.”

[Marcel]

2.5!


Cute little story about fantasies versus reality… but kinda scary for that reason. Put some random ass alien species or secret military program in this story and boom! You have yourself a sick ass Twilight Zone episode.

[msleighm]

Audiobook.

Lol, my roommate and I play a similar game!

[Jen Steed Knapp]

Oh, this is a little four-page gem. An emerald, actually. The materialism and hedonism still ring true today.

[Vina Jasim]

Pretty short but it was a good story it was pretty fun to read for me I guess

[Zeyad Waleed]

Humorous! 😁

[Mark]

Two common young working women understand their socio-economic positions after window shopping. Nice imagery and subtle revelations from the author.

[Marshall Larson]

A great commentary on how people disdain that which they cannot have, even though they would at first chance live a lavish lifestyle.

[Nayer]

wholesome young fun between 2 best friends

[Sofia Singer]

En perfekt novelle, beskrivelserne var så smukke<33